Hearts and Brains
Hearts and Brains is a machinima miniseries directed by Xanatos, produced by Machinima.com, and written by Dan Brooks. History Writer Dan Brooks approached Machinima.com staff to make a story-based miniseries for mainstream audiences based on a series of scripts he wrote. Series producer Jeremy Azevedo then contacted Xanatos to direct the pilot episode. The first episode was primarily filmed in the first week of January 2010, finishing on January 9, and subsequently processed and uploaded Sunday, January 16. Each episode is uploaded on the Sunday following the final render to capitalize on feature time. Plot Episode 1: Pretty...Woman? 300px|thumb|right|Episode 1: Pretty...Woman? Rod Masters (played by Ben Gabriel) contacts an escort service to order a hooker for the day. When his doorbell finally rings, he finds a zombie hooker, believing her to merely be an eerie lady. She walks in almost uninvited and knocks a lamp over on the way to the couch. He tells her the safeword is "limerick", and turns on a radio, saying that it's about to play a Kesha song. He then walks over to her, saying she looks Korean. Suddenly, the hooker throws him around, as he repeatedly shouts "limerick" to get her to stop. In response, a friend of his named Gabriel (played by Xanatos) breaks through the kitchen door and kills the zombie hooker with Rod's "sex axe", noting that she was a zombie. They argue about Gabriel's sudden actions, and Rod tries to figure out how to get rid of the hooker's body, with Gabriel suggesting humorous actions. Rod then decides to instead call his personal assistant Sasha (played by Laryn Michael), who Gabriel claims is a lesbian. While the phone rings in Sasha's office, she tries to shoot several approaching headcrab zombies while crouching on a nearby desk. Rod gets nervous about her not answering, and Gabriel implies that she was attacked by zombies. After the credits, Gabriel suggests that if he had a time machine, he would use it to kill baby Adolf Hitler. Episode 2: Don't Axe, Don't Tell thumb|300px|right|Episode Two: Don't Axe, Don't Tell While the zombie apocalypse destroys the outside world, and sends Sasha shooting her way to safety in her car, Rod and Gabriel sit down watching western shows on TV. Shortly after, Gabriel asks Rod if he wants pancakes, while Rod becomes frustrated that Sasha isn't with them yet to help get rid of the dead hooker. Gabriel suggests she's mad at Rod. In a flashback, he walked into a dark room and took part in a surprise for his own birthday party. But he tripped on his birthday cake, thinking it was Sasha's, while a colleague vomits at it. Rod doesn't seem to recall this event. Then, Sasha calls Rod while she is in her car surrounded by her zombified colleagues at work. She pleads with him to help out using tactical directions, thinking that they are also in the midst of the action, while Gabriel tries calling out to her, but Rod dismisses her pleads as meaningless casual talk, and plainly tells her to pick up his dry cleaning. She then hangs up, to Rod's disgust. 56 minutes later, Sasha walks into the apartment with a shotgun and finds them watching TV, with the dead hooker sitting down and wearing a sombrero. She shoots the hooker, thinking it was still alive, and panickly demands they go to the roof. Rod suggests that it isn't necessary, since killing the hooker wouldn't cause any dissent. Sasha figures out they have no idea about the apocalypse, and leads them to the roof to show them the zombies. In response, Rod suggests riding his car. After the credits, Gabriel suggests watching Space Jam. External Links *Episode 1 on YouTube *Episode 2 on YouTube *Janus Syndicate official website *Machinima.com official YouTube channel